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Olympian Shines at Shawnigan Lake
As Reported by the Victoria Times Colonist |
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| May 26, 2009 |
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Triathlete Lisa Mensink suffered the toughest blow that can befall any Olympic athlete — tumbling to the ground in the biggest race of your life.
The Winnipeg-born dual Canada-Netherlands citizen, representing the Dutch team, was bloodied and hurt but dusted herself off after the bike crash in Beijing and gamely finished the race last in the women's field of the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Mensink is a heck of a racer when she can stay upright and showed it
yesterday by winning the women's Half Iron distance of the Shawnigan Lake Triathlon.
Mensink's time of four hours 31 minutes nine seconds over the picturesque 1.9-kilometre swim, 88-kilometre bike and 21.1-kilometre run course — which encompassed the Trans-Canada Trail through the Cowichan Valley with spectacular views of the Kinsol Trestle — was third best overall behind only the men's champion Stephen Kilshaw of Victoria (4:03:43) and men's runner-up Robert Shypitka of
Calgary (4:26:18).
Kilshaw's stated goal is to follow in the grand tradition of fellow-Victoria triathletes such as Olympic champion Simon Whitfield and former Ironman Hawaii world champions Lori Bowden and Peter Reid. Switching from Olympic to the longer distance, Kilshaw said his long-term dream is to win Ironman Hawaii. This Oak Bay High grad may just do it. Kilshaw, a converted former sailor and skier, set a blistering world-class pace in finishing nearly 23 minutes ahead of runner-up Shypitka.
"Triathlon is a sport that is definitely available here and I was inspired by all the Victoria performers who came before me," said Kilshaw, as he trained earlier this spring.
Defending women's champion Rachel Kiers (4:36:36) was runner-up this year to Mensink, the former CIS swimmer for the University of Calgary, who is coached by Victoria's Paul Regensburg.
Former national teamer Kelly Guest of Victoria showed he still has what it takes and won the Olympic distance, covering the 1.5K swim, 44K bike race and 10K run in 2:03:01. Lowell Rockliffe (1:03:52) of Victoria held off a challenge from runner-up Kamal Rae of Cranbrook (1:04:40) to win the sprint distance, which consisted of a 500-metre swim, 22K bike race and 5K run.
The official honorary theme of this year's Shawnigan Lake race was the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. Since winter athletes are hard to come by on the lower Island, and Summer Olympians famously plentiful, the event featured specially-invited guest racers such as Beijing Olympic gold-medallist eights rower Ben
Rutledge and Summer Paralympic Games multi-medallist swimmer Stephanie Dixon.
About 400 racers hit the water from the start-finish line at West Shawnigan Lake Provincial Park.
The Shawnigan Lake event kick-started the 2009 Subaru West Coast Triathlon Series, which also includes the Victoria New Balance Half Iron at Elk Lake on June 21, the
Vancouver Triathlon on July 12 and Sooke International on Sept. 13.
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